Oh yes, I don't think it's a coincidence that I was finally able to start writing in earnest once my daughter was in high school and operating very independently.
Actually, come to think of it, I never do this with fiction. Most of the time, what comes out is nonsense poetry, and although it is usually (in my humble opinion) pretty good, it might not be what you're looking for. You might try it though.
Yes, I hadn't thought of that one. Somebody who works from home probably has the same sort of difficulties, unless they're on their own or able to close an office door behind them.
I would really like to write and when i'm not trying to write i'm pretty creative in thinking things up. When I actually sit down to write I end up finding reasons not to. The biggest ones are the ones im sure everyone has, this won't be any good, it won't be published etc etc... lets leave them aside, i'm sure I can deal with them when the time comes. The one however that is the hardest for me to overcome and is almost always the reason I stop is this:. I think of something great in my head. I run through scenes, I invison what is happening, I run through dialogue, it all sounds great. However, by the time I get down to start typing in never ever comes out the same way and often looks awful when I read back through it. So I stop and walk away and play video games for a few months before attempting things again. Until I can get past this I cant see myself being able to really get started on anything. Any suggestions?
Yep. Two things: 1) How you engage the process Think of it like being a potter at a wheel. What you start with is a lump of unpretty clay. You have to work it and work it until you get the finished product. NO ONE sits at the wheel and throws a perfectly glazed, beautiful bowl from the first go. You have to work that clay into a shape. You have to know that a lot of the time you're going to mess up because you've pushed too hard in one direction. You have to be willing to take the clay, mush it all back together in a ball, and start again. You have to know how the wheel works. You have to know what the clay will and won't do. And most of all, you have to remember that it's your clay. You can do whatever you want with it. You can reuse it and repurpose it. It's always your clay, and there's always more. It's pretty inexpensive, actually. 2) Discipline Everything I just said in #1, I've got down pat. This one is the one I'm still working on myself. It's hard to discipline yourself if it doesn't come naturally or if you've already flex your discipline muscles in a different direction. I'm an independent contractor, so I'm disciplined as regards my work. Like, right after I post this, I need to get back to my project because its due tomorrow, and I will do it, even if you see me still online. I usually just leave the forum page open. But regardless, this one is one for which I have no metaphor. You just have grunt through it until it becomes natural to you.
I'd also say to write for yourself. Forget 'it won't be good, it won't be published.' Maybe it won't be. However, there is nothing so bad that it can't be fixed. So don't let these doubts hold you back. And remember, you don't have to show your writing to anybody, or even tell people that you're writing at all, until you feel ready. As far as getting your story down ...I'd do this. (Reason: it's what I did myself.) Start by writing your favourite scene. It doesn't have to be the opening scene at all. In fact, it can be any scene anywhere in the story. Write it—but as you write it pay attention to the scene itself, not where it's leading. Don't be in a rush. Take time to set the scene (and by that, I don't mean describe the setting ...or rather there's more to it than describing the setting. There is feeling, atmosphere, pace, etc.) Establish what you want the scene to accomplish, and try to make it personal if you can. Not some huge, overwhelming infodump about your story's 'world.' Get down to the small stuff and write it. Do you want it to show how your main character feels about her mother? Do you want it to show how the three brothers are treated differently by their parents? Do you want to show how the main character and his best friend get along? Do you want to show how your main character is terrified of being chosen as leader? Or of losing a race? Or of being eaten by a bear? Is it a scene where you want to show the moment when two people realise they've fallen in love with each other? Decide what you want your scene to accomplish. Decide what sort of atmosphere you want to create. Is it a slow scene, full of character development, feelings, etc? Is it a fast scene, where a lot of action is happening? Is it a twisty scene, that maybe starts out one way and turns out completely different? Is it a complicated scene with lots of characters in it? Once you've chosen your scene and decided how you want to approach it, then get it written. Then after it's written, leave it for a day or so, go back and make quick changes ...but don't get hung up on making it perfect. Move on, and write another scene. Keep on until you've got all the important scenes in your story written. By that time you'll be confident, you'll know what your story is about and where it's going. Then you can write transitional scenes that tie it all together. I'd say the most important things are : 1) decide beforehand what you want the scenes to show, and 2) whatever else you do ...slow down! Put EVERYTHING you've got into the scene. Don't worry about over-writing. It's easily cut back later on. Wallow in emotion. Again, that can be cut back later on. It's very hard to insert emotion into a flatly-written scene, however, so, again, slow down and put it in your first draft. It's a journey and an experience, not a set of plot points. I'm encouraged by the fact that you say you've envisioned your scenes quite fully. I think a beginner's mistake often is to do the opposite. They think of a 'great idea,' get it all written out, and it reads like an encyclopedia entry. Envisioning is what will make your writing come to life. I think you're already halfway to success. Just take it one piece at a time, though. Don't try to do too much at once. And focus on getting it all written before you start trying to make it perfect. AND good luck, and have fun.
I'm going to copy/paste from my response on this thread, because it seems relevant: Most people will have to write write a lot of things before they produce something that's good enough for publication. I see so many posters here who just can't seem to put words on a page because they're paralyzed with second guessing everything about their story before they even start. I wrote over 30 unpublishable stories (some novel/novella length) over three years before I wrote something that could be submitted to a publisher. Every single thing I wrote was instrumental in getting me to that point. I think at some point we have to get past the idea that writing is a waste of time unless it's something publishable, and instead see it as an important and necessary part of the journey.
I believe (and have no doubt said elsethread) that writing fiction especially suffers from this problem. Nonfiction is generally a spiffed-up version of thoughts already in words. Music is a transcription of music in your head. A drawing is a depiction of an image in your head. Words to words, music to music, image to image. But that's not true of fiction. Fiction takes an image or a movement or an emotion and translates it to words, and then it is rehydrated in the reader's head. It's as if an artist is forbidden to actually draw, but instead has to describe the image to another artist, who does the actual drawing. It's unnatural. It's difficult. And it's only going to get less difficult if you just keep on trying it and, for a while, failing.
An outline will help. I use outlines for everything, including short stories. An outline is a bullet list of scenes in your story. Spend some time each day on one of the bullets in your outline. As you think of more scenes, add them to the outline. This helps me to gauge progress, and it removes the pressure from feeling like the story is getting away from me before I can write it. Here's an example of how I outline a short story: 1. Scene 1 - evening - a bay with boats on the beach. 2. A bait ball in the water being worked by fish below and birds above. 3. Bruce works on a motor in one of the boats on the beach. 4. He scrapes and cracks a knuckle. 5. He goes to the water edge to wash the hand. 6. Movement in the water. 7. A surge of water, tentacles wrapping, pulls Bruce into the water. 8. Birds picking at the scraps upon the surface. 9. Scene 2 - same beach - next morning - bystanders, police, and a detective. 10. Blood and clothing of Bruce. 11. Dialog - a similar pattern - missing persons. 12. Detective begins investigation - compares similar, recent cases. If you look at the above bullets, I'm basically creating a story. I can continue this format to the end. I can also begin writing while I'm still working-out story plot, choosing any bullet, without worrying about giving up, because the story is there. I'm not losing anything. I'm not spinning my wheels. As more ideas come to me, I add them to my outline. I hope this helps.
Don't write to be published, write for the joy of creation. You can set your own goals. I wrote in the hopes I would finish a novel. That I would produce a novel that other people would buy. That I would finish a second novel. And so forth. If you set out to Be A Great Writer the odds are against you. Keep your expectations real. When you are outclassed by the enemy defense, short running plays are your friend.
How do I get past it? I keep procrastinating too. Also, I'm unsure whether to write in first person or third person!
Hello, Icy (and welcome to the forum!) I don't actually believe in writers block per se. I mean, I'm currently a little hung up on where I'm going with my current WIP, but I'm not blocked so much as cripplingly indecisive. I guess you could call that block, but I could write anything else with no problem. Which brings me to the next part - getting over it. Let it marinate for a bit. Read. Write something else (completely different). It'll come to you and you'll be okay in a bit. 1st or 3rd is more of a preference (to me). Whichever one seems more natural to you and works for your needs is the one you should go with. There's no right answer to that one, just preferences.
Hi Trish, thank you I usually write in 1st but I'd love to be able to write in 3rd, I just don't know how to start. For some reason, writing in third person seems impossible to me.
You're welcome, and, unfortunately - I definitely am not the person to help you with that. When I try to write in 3rd I feel like everything is stunted and weird. I've been trying for years, then I'll switch to 1st and suddenly all is right with the world. I'll keep trying, but I have no confidence that I'll ever get there. I like to read 3rd, I just can't seem to write it.
I don't understand what people mean by writer's block. People can always write what's on their mind because the mind never stops thinking. If you're having difficulty thinking of a story idea, or if you're not sure where to go with an idea, don't beat yourself up over it. Write about something else, such as a memory, or something interesting that recently happened to you. Don't waste writing-time with thinking-time. You can always think later, such as while laying in bed trying to fall asleep, commuting to school or work, or in my case, during a meeting at work when the long-winded boss keeps jabbering on about productivity or some other boring thing. If you have your fingers on the keyboard, and you're sitting there waiting for inspiration, that's like a cat staring into a room waiting for a mouse to show up. The mouse isn't going to show itself until the cat does something else. As for third-person writing, it's just an objective perspective. You're probably doing it to some capacity without realizing it. For example, you probably wouldn't write, "I spent the day at the beach. I saw dolphins swimming in the water." You write instead, "I spent the day at the beach. There were dolphins swimming in the water." The second sentence in the second example is now third person. To make the second example entirely third-person: "It was a beautiful day at the beach. Dolphins were swimming in the water." Practice makes perfect.
Hi, there. Welcome. If you haven't already, be sure to head over to the New Members section and take advantage of the resources and information there. So, where are you with your story? Still struggling with how to begin? Part way along but feeling you've hit a brick wall? Or are you well into it but your characters are pulling you in ten directions at once and you can't decide? Your question about POV makes me suspect you're in the early stages. You've got the basic idea, right? The "Wouldn't it be cool if this thing happened to this guy and it was really because of this other dude and what he did and then this girl shows up and she---?" As @Walking Dog said above, there's no point talking about writing or writer's block if you don't have that. Get that Idea scene or scenes down. Try it in both first and third. Do a gut check on which allows you to tell your tale with the most impact. And go from there.
I'm with Trish. I don't accept the notion of writer's block. There is simply the inability to move forward (which can be for a variety of reasons). I was just at an online writing conference session where I heard an excellent piece of advice: "Allow yourself to write crap." Because everyone does, at the beginning. There is an old saying that the first million words you write are practice. My own experience is that the number is well north of that, depending on a number of factors. As for 1st vs 3rd person, I wouldn't worry about it. If you're comfortable writing in first, stick with it. For heaven's sake, don't let something like that hold you up. Now, stop wasting your time reading my thoughts and go write some of your own. Good luck.
For me writer's block is basically something that you have to put to paper, tablet, or computer. Get the words out whatever they maybe or research. Somtimes you have to write a pile of crap to get that little gold nugget to spur you forward while others you just aren't informed enough or you are missing a piece to connect the dots.
Whenever I feel like this, it's because I haven't planned something properly. I think I'm stuck on knowing what to write or how to write it, but actually it's because I don't have enough certainty about the direction of the plot, or the motives of a character. At times like this, I do one of two things. I either go back to my plan and expand on it to work out what comes next, or I force myself to start writing something. Of the two, I think the latter is the most useful for me. Writing something down is like a conversation. I'll write it, then read it back, and it will either work or it won't work. If it works, great. If not, I'll know why it doesn't work, and that's generally the information I need in order to rewrite it so it does work.
I feel exactly the opposite. I'm very much in the same school as @Trish in that I don't get writers block as such; if I'm struggling to get through something then it's normally because it's not that good, or because it's something that doesn't engage me and both are my fault more so than my brains. Planning does nothing to help either of these problems either, it's a moment to moment thing, it's nothing to do with what I planned, it's to do with where I am right now and what I'm writing and if it sucks that means this scene needs something better to contribute to the overall plot. You shouldn't have any scenes that are just boring. You can have quieter scenes, relaxed scenes, but not just boring ones. The answer I find is to go back and ask what you are trying to do in this scene and the write that instead of whatever you were writing. Focus on the thing that makes this scene need to be in the book. If you are still struggling then just write in a more minimal way until you bump into something that makes you want to keep writing. Literally just write notes, just a few words to skim through until you run into something that you want to write more completely, something that as you are making notes you think "Actually I want to get this down." and then you are well away. And often times you'll find that the the bits you skipped over really weren't that big of a deal and can be cut or left as single sentences. It's really important not to get bogged down in trying to get something perfect too. You just need to get it down. It's a marathon, it takes time, you're going to edit. Do not worry if it's not perfect, or even if it's not good. If it's down on the page you are doing ok. So don't sit there trying to figure out how to make something perfect, just move on, just write it (even if just as a few notes) and push past and come back fresh. For me I usually start out struggling to know what to do with something and sort of piddling around until I run into the plot proper, but that's ok. By the end of the book I know the characters and I know how they fit together and I can come back and re-jigger the start now I know exactly what I'm working with. It genuinely does take me a whole book to get to the point where I can write the intro well. But that's ok. No-one reads my first draft. Don't worry about being able to write in 3rd person. If 1st person works for you just write in it. You are never going to master every single writing technique. You should just aspire to being good at the ones that you use. If/when you have a reason to use 3rd person then you'll find it much easier to pick up with it there. When you have a specific reason to learn and a strong inspiration to work from then it's so much easier than just trying to learn a skill for the sake of knowing it.
Do you have your story thought out? If you just want to write and don't know what you want to write, that can certainly be holding you back. If that's the case, you probably need to spend some time thinking up a story, or at least thinking up a few characters and get them interacting in your head. The more you can get characters and events to come into your head, the easier it will be to get started writing. Don't worry about first versus third person. Both are very acceptable and popular. Just go with what feels natural to you. I don't know if you're an experienced writer or not, but if you're not, there are a few tricks you can try. One of my favourite tricks to 'getting started' is to pick a scene that I've envisioned fairly specifically, and write it. Don't worry about whether it's the opening scene, or anything like that. Just get your 'favourite' scene onto your computer—even if it's the only scene you've thought up thus far. Don't worry about SPAG mistakes, or the finished quality of the writing, or anything like that. Concentrate on the story itself. Build the characters you've created, give them personality and attitude, put them into a vivid scene, and get them doing what they do. See how much emotion you can get into the scene as well. Don't just write 'what happened' because that's usually very dry and dull, unless you are very skilled at it. Also try to use more than just empty dialogue to tell the story. That's especially easy to do if you're using first person. "You" will be thinking and feeling as well as talking and doing. Get it all in there. You can get quite emotional and melodramatic at this stage, because it's easy to tone it down later on. What I think is harder is beefing it up later on, so don't hold back at this stage. Once you get that scene done, I'm sure another one will come up. And another, and another. Just build your story, either from the start to the finish, or from the middle towards both ends, the end to the beginning, or just skip around. The more you get written the more you'll see the shape of the story, and will be able to write connecting chapters. Have fun. And above all, DON'T commit yourself to showing it to other people. Keep it totally to yourself until you're sure it's ready to show around. Even then I'd advise to wait till you have the first draft completed. However other writers on this forum think it's fine to show it around after a couple of chapters, and I can't argue with success. But remember... you are writing for yourself at this point, so there is no need to be scared you're going to make a dog's breakfast of the whole thing. Even if you do, nobody else will know unless you show it to them. And even if you do that, also remember that a dog's breakfast can always be cleaned up. So ...just plunge in. One of my mottos is: "Write without fear; edit without mercy." I'd say be honest, make it a point to write bravely about what matters to you, don't worry about what your granny or your best friend will think ... and good luck!
I assume all writers deal with bouts of crippling self-doubt. At least, that's what I hear. I've read the best way to push through those times is to read... good books or bad, apparently this is supposed to "cleanse the mental palate." Maybe lend inspiration to get one writing again. I guess this works to a point... but lately I find it's only making things worse. I'm reading two books: one by my favorite author (whose talent and success I aspire to), and another by a new author who's writing vlogs I've been following. I was excited to read her book, thinking it would be insightful, but instead I've found it sadly lacking, despite all the good advice she gives in her vlogs. I think the quality of my own writing falls somewhere in the middle of the above-mentioned. While I do appreciate the feeling of knowing things could always be worse, I feel crippled by the thought that I'll never reach the level where I want to be. Even though I have a BA, I don't think I'm ever going to have a traditional "career" that fulfills me like being a professional novelist would... but, you know... bills. I've been hacking away at my WIP for six years now... if I didn't have to go to work everyday, and all I had to focus on was writing, I think I could have my first draft done in six months. As it stands... who knows. I guess I'm hoping someone has some words of wisdom on this matter. How do you stay productive when you're feeling like a steaming pile of horse dung?
Well, I think the first thing is to forget about feeling like a steaming pile of horse dung! There is an old poem, Desiderata, which has a good piece of advice for all writers... "Don't compare yourself with others, lest you become vain... or bitter." When you feel dissatisfied with what you are working on, analyze it logically... WHY are you dissatisfied? Write down the the things you LIKE about what you are doing, along with the things you don't like, and lay out a plan of action to make it better. And then, go out and do something that makes you feel good about yourself, running, swimming, taking a hike. Writing requires, I think, a very positive attitude about what you are doing. So don't mix too much editing with your writing, because editing is critical. Writing - Wow! This is going to be a great story. Editing - Ugh! What was I thinking when I wrote this steaming pile of horse dung? Keep them separate. Also, if you enjoy your day job and get good positive feelings about what you are doing, use that to boost your attitude toward your writing. Hope these things help!
That's good advice, about keeping the writing and editing separate, so you stay in the right mindframe as you get your story out there. I totally agree. Don't nitpick it to the point where you lose heart. I would say, @Caveriver , to concentrate on the plot and your characters and your feelings about them, rather than the physical writing. If you're excited about your story, get it out there, and don't be afraid of it. It will not be perfect, certainly the first time. In fact, it may make you laugh, years later, to read through your first draft. (I laugh at mine, and apologise to my first betas who plowed through it.) However, when you know you HAVE a story and you believe in its characters and in 'what happened,' you will feel positive about the whole experience. Write honestly, and don't worry about how it looks or how it will be received. Not at this stage, anyway. Once it's all done, then it becomes a different job to get it into better shape. This can also be fun to do, however. By then you'll know you have a story that's worth polishing. But if you're just endlessly polishing your first couple of chapters, wondering if it's worth continuing because what you're doing is so imperfect and doesn't measure up to other authors? I think that's a bit like chasing your tail. Lots of effort expended, but no result. Wallow in your story for now, and get it told. Any way you can.
First/Rough drafts are always kinda bad, and this is ok. That is what editing, rewrites, and cutting the fat is for. Sure you will have doubts, most do. You just have to look past all of that and not compare your work to others. It is not theirs, it is yours. Will you have off days, sure. Everyone does. If you like your story it is worth writing, and if for some reason you don't, save it for reference or come back to it later. Delete nothing if you are serious about it. Even just taking a break to work on something else is fine, and lets you keep writing without the pressure of working on your main WIP. You will get it writ when you get it writ. Good Stories take time, care, and development. Bad ones are pounded out by those who are only in it for the money, and spend as little time as possible to move onto the next generic story to push out. Take it easy, and don't beat yourself up about getting stuck, or having doubts. Realize that no one is perfect, and that you will find your audience, and that you will get your stories written. Have patience and know you are doing the best that you can. Good Luck.
